Struggling to fit the obs in,any tips plz

The children I care for are both 14 months now and I'm getting used to doing the obs, I understand the concept now and how to move on to the next stage I think!
But i'm struggling to find the time to fit them in, I find I'm jumping up to grap the camera to record the wow moment,The children are posing now they are so used to it.Lol
But I only have them for 3 days and now the weather is nice we are out and about and I haven't planned a specific activity for 3 weeks now,i'm so busy out and about that I could do with a day of rain to catch up.
We do the usual groups and walks etc and in the afternoon they both sleep for 2 hours so how often should I plan a specific observation is once every 6 weeks enough at this age and just record any wow moments in between.
To be honest the obs only last 20 mins so I should manage more but with bank holidays and nvq work time just vanishes.

I heard the other day that if nothng 'important' has happened, you shouldn't record something just for the sake of it.
If you can show that you give the children opportunities in the six areas of learning as I'm sure you do, you jsut need to record it in some way. It doesn't have to be huge observations. It's often said that a post it note, is enough. And you don't need a photo for everything, just a record of what happned and some photos.

Thanks for that, looks like i'm covered then, I can get on and enjoy it!!

You need to keep obs short, sweet and relevant like Paula says.

There's no point writing an essay that nobody will be interested in.

If nothing happens then you need to get info from parents about what they are doing at home to fill in the gaps.

The same with part timers - your relationship with parents needs to be that much closer.

Hth :D

Obs don't have to be around a planned activity they can be something they do whilst they are doing freeplay somegtime. My 10 month old suddenly pulled herself up to standing yesterday and i just made a note and filled the ob form in a bit later. You don't always need photos either.

Thanks everyone think I was trying to hard!!!

20 minute observation? Or have I misread that!

I did an observation this week on a just 2 year old. He built a tower with 10 duplo bricks. I hadnt seen him do it before.

I dont plan to do observations, I just make a note of new things I see the children do.

I did an observation of a 3 year old, she coloured in the leaves on a tree green. She usually colours everything pink!

A 3 year old, this week showed me his picture of a balloon. It was great and I could see that it was a balloon, so I am going to photocopy it for my file, date it and give the original to mum.

I have also taken photos. Other weeks, I might not do any observations.

I went on a training course recently and the recommendation for a planned observation was between 20 and 30 minutes, I'm just trying to do how i've been shown. All the examples had been devised by the childminders on the network and they test everything out for the cdo's and give their recommendations before we go on the training days.
Everyone does things differently but the problem I have is when ofsted set their standards against network childminders with alot of experience I have alot to live up to.
Caroline

That sounds like an observation for the sake of it.

I can understand why you might need to do that in a nursery but I dont need to do observations to know the children very well. I am with them all day and I dont change shift.

I know exactly what interests the children have without doing long written observations.

I have had my Network Co-ordinator visit me this week and she told me I am doing very well. I certainly dont do 20-30 minute observations.

I thought we were meant to care for and play with the children.

I don't do 20-30 min obs :)

I will do things my way and if that just gets me a satisfactory then so be it.

Life is too short. Mindees have fun, so do I and I think their files look great with lots of photos and short obs and next steps. With 6 in the EYFS, 3 at a time, I feel I am doing quite enough :thumbsup: :)

I agree with you both and gonna do my own thing from now on, never felt comfortable with it. I like my wow moments and photos and can link these in easily to the eyfs.Thanks for your comments

a lot of good points here. i am in scotland and we dont HAVE to do any of this but i feel it will be good practice and hopefully get a thumbs up at inspeciton so just going to go through some threads on here to get some ideas, cheers guys xx